To my dear friend Skip: I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write this – and with your passing from this life, to the next, yesterday, I supposed it’s now really meant for me and those who knew and loved you, and those who WILL come to know you posthumously – and while I know I’ve expressed some of what is to follow to you, Linda and the girls, in person over the years, I was not able to more recently, when last face-to-face, what an impact your friendship has had on my life…so now I’ll tell the world instead.

Skipper, you have always been a good friend and a great dad & husband…you lived a life of love, joy, peace & happiness that had to end with a joyous exclamation mark as you closed your eyes for the last time here on earth and opened them to gaze upon our Savior; hearing for the first –surely not the last – time, “Well done, My good and faithful servant!” Stepping from your broken earthly vessel, into the arms of Jesus.

Oh what a party there must be in Heaven this week! (I’m sure with you there Skip, the party may well go on for all eternity, for a more joy-filled servant will not easily be found in His Kingdom, now that you are there!)

The Osgoods

That you lived your life selflessly is an understatement.

When my mother went home to be with the Lord, December 4th, 1997 (yes, on the anniversary of the very same DAY you earned your perfect new body) you and Linda lead others in prayer over me, loved me, hugged me and helped me through the emotional ups and downs that followed. Without prompting you would offer a hug, a prayer, an encouraging word whenever we ran into each other. I really loved that about you bro!

While you were the throws of your own battle with cancer, instead of seeking the pity and sympathy of others, you rallied the body of Christ to raise awareness of the need and funds for another young couple where the wife, a new mom, was diagnosed with a painful and rare form of cancer. You stood in the food line, not getting, but serving others who had come to a barbeque on the lawn of our local church; barked out ‘Be sure to buy some of those cookies and cakes over there too! It all goes to the family…”

When you took me for a ride in your cool sports car (a Cobra, wasn’t it?) it wasn’t to show off your success and your toys…it was to share a laugh-filled ride with me, your friend!

When my wife and I tearfully opened the gifts & card from our wonderful friends, who gathered together to raise money to send us to Hawaii for our 20th wedding anniversary (And knowing that if it only cost a quarter to fly around the world, I couldn’t afford to cross the street! LOL) there was your and Linda’s fond wishes and congratulations written therein.

When you were trying to figure out how to use “this stupid computer…can’t get it to work or do anything!” you could have called anyone to handle the issues, but you trusted me and blessed me by allowing me to help you and your family get it working. (By the way, you never told anyone about me showing you WHERE to kick computers to make them work, did you? I don’t usually give trade secrets like that away, ya know! J)

I can only hope to honor your life by serving your family in whatever way the Lord and they allow; by serving others as selflessly as you did, to love others as completely as you did. You’ve left some might big shoes to fill and I doubt any dozen men could combine their ‘talents and treasures’ to equal your goodness and kindness.

While I know you have been completely healed, that your earthly suffering will be completely overshadowed by your eternal perfect life, I still can’t help but miss you. I’ve promised myself to only spread the Good News, as you did; to laugh wholly, as you did; to love completely, as you did; especially when sharing about how your life intersected and influenced mine…but today…

Today you will have to forgive me, as I weep deeply over the loss of a good man, a godly friend and the closing of a wonderful chapter in my life, and from whom the lessons I’ve learned I hope will not be soon forgotten.

Until we meet again, dear friend, may God tell all the angels and citizen’s of Heaven of His good works through your life; and may the heavens burn brighter in remembrance of the laughter and joy you spread here before joining them, forever and ever…Amen.

AT&T serves up a new ‘trick’ and takes away the ‘treat’ in Reno, Nevadaas noted in an October 31st letter to the Federal Communications Commission by AT&T’s General Attorney, Jack Zinman, where in AT&T outlines its’ intent to place limits on the amount of usage any one account can upload or download each month.

With all the uproar over Comcast’s 250GB limitation recently imposed on their customers, Reno AT&T Internet Service customers are sure to want to beat the house when they discover that their ISP has raised the table stakes by capping their ‘unlimited service’ at only 20GB for some users and 150GB for others.

“For customers that exceed their bandwidth allotment more than once – the size of which varies based on the service level, starting with a 20 GB limit for 768kbps customers and topping out at 150 GB for 6 mbps lines – they will find an additional charge of $1 per gigabyte on their monthly bill,” reports Tom Corelis, blogging for Daily Tech.

The filing notice points out that only a small minority of customers “consume a disproportionately large amount of the total bandwidth available,” and that as of now (The letter says this “trial” begins “in November.”) customers who exceed 80% of this cap will be notified that they are getting close to their limit and be reminded of the usage tier and that additional charges will apply if they exceed that limit.

The letter does state that new and existing customers not willing to participate in this “trial” run, will be permitted to “cancel their broadband internet access service without an early termination penalty.”

I don’t know about you, but this is a bit distressing for “Joe the Plumber,” and others that I’ve spoken to about this issue of limiting “unlimited” service.

AT&T is promising an online meter that customers can monitor usage with in order to avoid an overage, but if their problem is with “a small minority” of their clientele, why set up the majority for potential problems except to profit from it?

Can’t they just deal with the high-rollers by tossing them out of the game on a case-by-case basis?

What do you think about all this and how might a 20GB/150GB cap effect you?

Ok, ok…so this isn’t really NEW news; many of you have heard about tech heads playing with concept for awhile now, but this is the first time I’ve seen the YouTube video and been offered a way to buy a DIY kit from the nutz…er…I mean geniuses at Puget Systems!

Here’s a shameless plug right off the website J : “By offering these DIY kits, we are saving you very large amounts of time spent on research, ordering, and mistakes. The end cost of the project is much lower, because you can get in the right parts, the first time. Since we are ordering in the parts in bulk, we are able to get the parts cheaper, which allow us to make the margin we need to fund the project, while continuing to offer them at a lower price than you’d get if ordering them one at a time from various sources. It’s a win for everyone! We are offering the kit in two separate modules: the main aquarium module, and a cooling module. We also offer all the components for sale individually on our parts store.”

Ok, so as cool as this is (no pun intended) you need to know that utilizing this kit will void your warranty; and, the peeps at Puget being the upstanding citizens that they are, point it out clearly with this warning on their website: “Submerging your hardware in mineral oil will void your warranty. Do this project only at your own risk. Puget Systems is not liable for any hardware problems or damage to your personal property. Mineral oil is very difficult, if not impossible, to clean from your components once they are submerged.”

With that being said, you should also know that Puget claims to have been running a system for over a year in mineral oil, without any ill effects.

But WHY would someone WANT to do this? Cuz its COOL!

Not just cool LOOKING, Puget has set up everything from a cheap-o experimental rig up to the newer system in the video, to run at the fastest speeds possible and have maintained an uber cool, practically noise-free (those darn bubblers are loud, don’tcha know! LOL). And even more recently, they’ve tossed an overclocked Intel QX9770 into this oil bath and kept it at well under 50c! (click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page)

I’ll be following the progress and changes that this crew puts into place as new tech comes out and will be sure to update you as well!

Back in July, a leaked Powerpoint slide surfaced revealing Dell’s plan to release a pocket projector, but it didn’t say when or for how much. Those questions are answered today, along with a list of final specs.

For less than what some early adopters paid for a first-gen iPhone, Dell will sell you a pocket projector capable of an 858×600 (SVGA) resolution. The $500 Dell M109S On-the-Go Pocket-Sized projector checks in at 0.80 pounds (down from the Powerpoint slide’s target weight of 1.1 pounds) and will fit in the palm of your hand. Dell rates the M109S at 55 ANSI Lumens with a projection distance of 94.5 inches. And to keep the clutter down, the pint-sized projector uses the power adapter from a Latitude or Vostro laptop. True to the slide, the shipping version remains green with a mercury free LED source Dell says will last up to four years.

Look for availability in the US right away, with a global roll out in the coming months.

It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention and we’ve all heard that “Everything is possible…the impossible just takes a little longer,” but often times one needs to come up with some innovative or unusual “workaround” to solve a repeatable problem or simplify a task.

The other day we were working on inventorying computer/network assets for our annual audit when I found that whoever ‘tagged’ our network switches, had done so by applying the little white bar coded sticker to the back of the device…which I guess wouldn’t be too much of a problem IF WE HAD A BAR SCANNER! But we don’t and the only way to identify these units is by retrieving the tiny number under the barcode.

Oh, did I mention that the switches are rack mounted to a WALL? Yeah…so there’s like 3 inches between the back of the units and the wall…no open sides…nothing.

So, how am I supposed to read the tag? (Even the Dell Service Tag is on the back and no one thought to document which tag went to which switch ID so the “SW-1” was useless to me)

Being an ex-plumber (Ya, ya…insert your own “Jack of all trades” joke here) I remembered using my handy-dandy ‘mirror on a stick’ to see my solder joints on the backside of the pipes; unfortunately IF I still have that, it’s in a bucket at my house in the **GULP!** garage from Hades. (Tools check in, but they never check out!) – So I asked as many purse-totin’ peeps as I could find if they had a pocket mirror I could borrow. No luck there either.

Fortunately for me I happen to work with one of the most brilliant and out-of-the-box thinkers I’ve ever met: My boss. “I’ve used my cell phone to take pictures behind the racks before,” says the wise young sage and IT Director.

So, with a positive ‘whatever it takes’ attitude, I did just that…and viola! (ok, so it took ten plus tries to find and get a recognizable picture; hey, it worked so nnyah!)

Anyway…that’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

And I end with this saying, reportedly in the words of Mother Teresa (I kid you not): “We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing”

What about you? Have any ‘workarounds’ that others haven’t thought of and would garner a strange look from an unknowing passerby? Share them here J

Even if you need to get a smog check done before you can register, it’s still a breeze, as the smog check station electronically relays the results to the DMV immediately upon successful completion of the process.

Step 1: Enter vehicle or vessel/boat information – So once you’ve determined whether or not you need a smog check (and done so if applicable), just check your renewal notice for instructions on how to register online…it’s literally three steps from being a done deal at that point!

Enter the “Renewal Identification Number” printed on your notice into the allotted box, enter your license plate number (on the notice too) in its box and click ‘Ok.’

Step 2: Record Verification and Payment Information – Once you confirm the info about you and your car, enter your payment method (I punched in my ATM number) and hit ‘Enter.’

Step 3: Transaction Confirmation – The third and final step is the confirmation/receipt…print it, click “Finished” and you are done!

“CONGRATULATIONS! – Your online registration renewal was successful! The Registration Card and Year Sticker will be mailed to you within 5 business days. The information from your transaction will update on the vehicle registration record after settlement of the daily transactions. This usually occurs during the next business day.”

Have a nice day…I know I am going to enjoy the two to four hours I just saved; heck, even had time to blog about this! J

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Past Life

Life Alterations

For those of you who don't know yet, it is Tabitha's birthday today.We have two celebrations planned, with presents, cake, the like. However, I struggled with what to do personally for her.I tried my hand at my usual brand of sh*tty poetry, with predictable outcome: something that resembles a foreign language that seems to require getting amnesiac […]

This past Saturday, my awesome sister-in-law Serena threw me a Pampered Chef shower. It was SO. MUCH. FUN! And I'd say it was a complete success for my very first shower EVER. (Er...I mean, I take showers. It was just my first, you know, party-type shower.)So here's how it went down.On Saturday, June 27th, a group of about 15 lovely ladies came fro […]

To explain the subject, a funny story:My housemate Sarah got married a few weeks ago to a great guy named Scott. He had been living in Texas, so he flew out to Santa Barbara a few times to help Sarah with planning and stuff during the months before the wedding. On one of his visits, the three of us were chatting and I mentioned going to the gym. Scott said, […]